
Qass E4-57 



Book__ 



.? 



2.7 






Abraham X*incoln, 



The Value to the Nation of his Exalted 



Rev. Mr. Carey's Fast Day Sermon, preached June 1, 1 865, in the First Pres- 
byterian Church of Freeport, 111. ^*»- * *j * 



He being dead, yet speaketh. — Heb. 11 : 4. To 
him that soweth righteouf>iitss shall be a sure reward. 
Prov. 11: IS. 

One of the most striking spectacles in 
all history has recently transpired in our 
land — the spectacle of a great nation in 
mourning for its murdered chief. The 
mourning was not simply formal, but sin- 
cere and deep. It was not confined to the 
great cities, where many thousands could 
gather to witness the imposing obsequies 
and look upon the remains of the deceased 
President, but extending throughout the 
land, and manifesting itself in a very 
marked way at all the villages and stations 
through which the funeral cortege passed 
in its long course to the place of burial ; 
pfople of every place along the route, 
gathering at the stations, in great numbers 
and by means of bonfires, the tolling of 
bells, the singing of dirges, the scattering 
of flowers in the Funeral Car, and other 
appropriate acts, expressing their love and 
reverence for the departed good man and 
Savior of his country, and their deep sor- 
row in view of his untimely death. No 
other man ever had so grand and magnifi- 
cent a funeral. No other man was ever so 
sincerely mourned >by such great multi- 
tudes. And, doubtless, the deep and gen- 
eral sonow expresses the people's sense of 
the surpassing excellence and greatness of 
him who has fal'en. Had he been a bad 
man and a tyrant, as he was accused of 
being, there would have been only a for- 
mal, heartless mourning. Had he been an 
oppressor with b s bands full of blood, and 
the enemy instead of the friend of human- 
ity, he would have died unhonored and 
unwept. It is because he was a good man, 
the poor man's friend, the worthy repre- 



sentative of the cause of universal liberty, 
the living embodiment and illustration of 
the great doctrines of humanity, and of the 
greatness and glory of free institutions, 
the benefactor of his race, that we feel 
such sorrow in view of his death. We 
have the sense that, while there are, among 
our rulers and statesmen, some perhaps of 
as great intellect, and some of greater learn- 
ing and eloquence, there are very few of 
such sincerity, honesty, purity, integrity, 
few so perfectly worthy of trust, few of 
such surpassing excellence of character. 

It may be, however, that some, even 
now, are hardly willing to award pre-emi- 
nent moral worth to the departed Presi- 
dent. But to say nothing of the testimo- 
ny of others, that of Rev. Dr. Gurley, his 
pastor in Washington, ought, it seems to 
me, to be regarded as decisive on this 
point. His eulogy pronounced in Wash- 
ington at the time of the funeral, and in 
the presence of men who had been associ- 
ated with Mr. Lincoln, as Congressmen, 
members of the Cabinet and army officers, 
for more than four years, is specially valu- 
able for its clear and emphatic testimony 
to the moral and religious character of Mr. 
Lincoln. "Beyond a question," says Dr. 
Gurley, "always and everywhere he aimed 
and endeavored to be right and do right. 
His integrity was all-pervading, all-control- 
ling, and incorruptible. * * * He saw 
his duty as Chief Magistrate of a great 
and imperiled nation, and leaned on the 
arm of him who giveth power to the weak 
and increaseth strength. * * * I speak 
what I know, and testify what I have of- 
ten heard him say when I affirm that that 
guidance and mercy were the prop on 






which he humbly and habitually leaned 
and that they were the best hope he had 
for himself and for his country. * * 
God raised him up for a great and glorious 
mission, furnished him for his work and 
guided him in his accomplishment. Nor 
was it merely by strength of mind, honee- 
ty of heart, and purity and pertinacity 
of purpose that he furnished him. In ad- 
dition to these things, he gave him a calm 
and abiding confidence in the overuling 
Providence of God and the ultimate tri- 
umph of truth and righteousness. Through 
the power and blessing of God, this confi- 
dence strengthened in him in all his hours 
of anxiety and toil, and inspired him with 
calm and cheerful hope, when others were 
inclined to despondency and gloom. Never 
shall I forget the emph ,! sis and deep emo- 
tions with which he Said to a company of 
clergyman and others who called to pay 
him their respects, in the darkest hour of 
our civil conflict : 'My hope of success in 
this great and terrible conflict rests on 
.that immutable foundation, the justice and 
goodness of God ; and when events are 
threatening and prospects very dark, I 
still hope that in some way which man 
cannot see, all will be well in the end, be- 
cause our cause is just, and God is on our 
side.' Such was his sublime and holy 
faith, and it was anchor to his soul both 
sure and steadfast." 

After speaking of his simplicity, integrity, 
industry, patience, persistent and self-sac- 
rificing devotedness to all the duties of his 
eminent position, benevolence, enlarged 
philanthropy, and inflexible purpose that 
the war should work the overthrow of 
slavery, Dr. Gurley proceeds : 

'"But more sublime than any or all these, 
more holy and influential, more beautiful 
and strong and sustaining, was his abiding 
confidence in God, and the final triumph 
of truth and righteousness through Him 
and for His sake. This was his noblest 
virtue, his grandest principle, the secret 
alike of his strength, his patience and his 



success. And this, it seems to me, after 
being near him steadily and with him of- 
ten for more than four years, is the princi- 
ple by which he, being dead, yet speaketh. 
Yes, by his steady, enduring confidence in 
God, and in the complete ultimate success 
of the cause of humanity, which is the 
cause of God, more than in any other 
way, does he now speak to us and the na- 
tion he loved and served so well. By this 
he speaks to his successor in office, and he 
charges him to have faith in God. By this 
he speaks to his Cabinet and to all who oc- 
cupy positions of responsiblity and au- 
thority, and he charges them all to have 
faith in God. Oh, mny the voice of this 
testimony sink down into our hearts to-day 
and into the heart of the nation. * * He is 
dead, but the memory of his virtues, of 
his wise and patriotic counsels, of the la- 
bors of his ca'm and steadfast faith in 
God, lives, is precious, and will be a pow- 
er for good in the country, quite down to 
the end of time." 

How very clear and emphatic this tes- 
timony, by a competent witness, asserting 
Mr. Lincoln to have been not only a man 
of great moral excellence, but a gedly 
man, and making faith in God, which cul- 
minated at last, we know, in the bumble 
reception of Christ and a Christian char- 
acter, the central principle by which he 
was guided in his work as a ruler and 
guided to so gloiious a result. I have 
quoted this testimony at length, because it 
is weighty and conclusive, and because it 
affords a fitting introduction to the sub- 
ject of our present meditations, namely, 
the value to us as a nation, of a character 
so noble and exalted. Regarding this 
character as the living, abiding principle 
of a manly, noble career — a priuciple ap- 
pearing at first as active and germinant, 
and steadily reaching on through the la- 
bors and conflicts of years towards a great 
result, then, at last, in the elevation and 
crowning work of Mr. Lincoln, blooming 
forth in a form of such uncommon symme- 



try and beauty as irrisistibly to attract our 
love and admiration, it;possesscs a priceless 
value and a power for good which we are 
not likely to overestimate. The good man 
indeed, has departed, but his character re- 
mains an active, beneficent force in our 
history, and among the richest of our pos- 
sessions. Its value may be seen'as follows: 
1. It bears with its whole weight on 
the side of the truth that the highest suc- 
cess is attainable in the way of righteous- 
ness ; that a man of integrity ail-pervad- 
ing, all-controlling and incorruptible, can, 
even in a worldly point of view, achieve the 
grandest of successes. The great lesson 
of the life-work of some men called great 
is that the necessary ccst of success is 
moral debasement; but the noble career of 
Mr. Lincoln teaches the opposite lesson. 
Too many accept it as a principle of 
worldly wisdom, that, to be successful, a 
man must nm>der his conscience and sac- 
rifice his manhood ; but Mr. Lincoln af- 
fords us an example of a man who rever- 
enced conscience, who beyond a question 
always aimed and eudeavored to be 
right and do right, who would not sacri- 
fice principle for the sake of success, but 
who was, nevertheless, nobly successful. 
On ihe line of strict adherence to duty and 
principle, he early determined to fight out 
the battle of life; and how memorable his 
victory showing what a truly, earnest, he- 
roic soul can do, with few external helps, 
and against many and great hindrances. 
How striking an illustration of liberty and 
the glory of our free institutions, in the 
fact that the boatman and rail-splitter, not- 
withstanding the disadvantages of his 
humble condition, rose to so high a posi- 
tion and accomplished so great a work ! 

But let us not speak of the hard lot of 
his early years as if it implies a natural 
inferiority, or as if a man born in povetrty 
and lowliness can not be born noble 
and great. For my part I am so thorough- 
ly a democrat that I cannot admit for a 
moment that Mr. Lincoln with his great 



and lefty soul, was a man of low origin. 
He would be no more to me though he 
had been able to boast a royal ancestry. 
His parentage was just as high and noble 
as though he had been born in a palace in- 
stead of a cabin. I do not doubt that his 
father in all his poverty, and obscurity, was 
a noble man. And I believe t' at the mother 
of Abraham Lincoln, plain, hard working 
woman that she was, with hands stiff and 
bony from toil, was just as noble and 
queenly as though she hod been delicately 
educated and nurtured, so as to 
answer perfectly to the description of a 
lady by the inspired Moses — "The tender 
and delicate woman which would noj ad- 
venture to set the sole of her foot upon 
the ground for delicateness and tender- 
ness." And that in his youth he was a la- 
borer and lived in a log cabin, what was 
there in this at all remarkable? That men 
should rise irotn the farm and the cabin to 
high positions is certainly not the excep- 
tion but the ruie, in this glorious country 
of ours, and is so very common as not to 
be specially remarkable. If you call it 
rising for a man to be in his mature years 
in a condition in which his labor is that of 
the head, after having been in early years 
in a condition in which his labor was that 
of the hands, then the country is full of men 
who have risen, and who would not think 
it at all degrading to return to the hard 
manual labor by which in early life they 
were taught some of the most weighty 
and most valued lessons. In aristocratic 
and despotic countries, such a change of 
conditions is indeed very remarkable, but, 
thank God, it is not so in ours. 

This, then, is not the peculiar distinc- 
tion of Mr. Lincoln, that he rose from a 
humble to a high position ; nor that he 
was a self-taught, self-made man — for 
there are many such men in our country; 
nor that he was a man of penetrating, fore 
seeing, comprehensive intellect, and ene 
of the most effective, persuasive speakers 
which the country has produced, affording 



a very striking exemplification of that 
principle of the rhetoricians, worthy of all 
acceptation that "eloquence is a virtue." 
Mr. Lincoln was, above all things, distin- 
guished among politicians, statesmen, also 
among those of his own profession, as a 
man of unbending uprightness and incor- 
ruptible integrity — a man of character. 
Without the learning and polish of Everett, 
without the massiveness of Webster, with- 
out the impassioned eloquence of Clay, yet, 
to say nothing of his deeper insight and far- 
ther reach of sagacity, in the grandeur of 
his manhood and character, how greatly he 
surpasses those men. 

Perfect truthfulness was the basis of his 
character, and this, it seems to me, was 
the principle of his intellectual develop- 
ment. It was manifested, at the outset of 
his course, in his setting himself to the 
study of Geometry, to learn the difference 
between proof and demonstration, and 
never leaving the study till he could dem- 
onstrate any proposition ofEuclid at sight. 
It was shown also in his seeking the ut- 
most precision in the expression of his 
♦.houghts, and in his patient, persevering, 
self-discipline, till his intellect cultivated 
from the center had become as true as was 
his heart, and an obedient and flexible in- 
strument of his will, and till he was hard- 
ly equalled in the force and transparent 
clearness with which he would state a 
point, and in the power of making the 
complex and obscure, simple and plain to 
the commonest minds. The same trait 
was manifested in his seeking to master a 
subject by going to the bottom of it or 
penetrating to its innermost principle, so 
that he could give the Jjist of it in a sin- 
gle clear, condensed statement. He was 
honest and truthful, and for thit reason 
succeeded in attaining a thorough, men- 
tal culture. And I confess, I am unable 
to understand why some in the contem- 
•ii of such a man — a man of the read- 
ing, experience and thought of thirty 
years in the legal profession, never can for- 



get his eaily disadvantages, nor cease to 
speak of him as a man of inferior attain- 
ment; when it is perfectly evident that he 
was an educated man in the true and 
highest sense, having a mind deeply and 
centrally cultivated; and that in practical 
knowledge of men and things, and in 
breadth and power of thought, he towered 
immeasurably above multitudes of men 
who are educated, not in the sense of be- 
ing grasping, powerful thinkers at all, but 
only in the sense of having a wide knowl- 
edge of books, together with, perhaps, some 
facility in the construction of smooth and 
sounding sentences. This truthfulness, as 
it lay at the basis of his education and 
culture, also lay at the basjs of his success 
in his profession. And, eertainly, he is 
evermore to be regarded one of the bright- 
est ornaments, of that profession. — 
And he was one of its brightest 
ornament? specially because he carried 
his consciousness, uprightness, integrity, 
into his legal practice. According to al' 
the testimony, he never descended to be a 
mere pettifogger. He never would take 
up a bad case for the sake of profit. He 
always, on principle, took the side which 
he believed to be right, and could not be 
induced, for any consideration, knowingly 
to advocate an unjust cause. Hence in his 
long legal practice, he earned the enviable 
reputation of being an honest man. And 
for that reason, and not simply, perhaps 
not chiefly, because of his learning, logic ? 
and persuasiveness as an advocate, he was 
successful, gaining his cases ; because it 
was taken for granted by juries that Abra- 
ham Lincoln, being a man of character, 
could not but be on the right side. And 
what was it that commended him for the 
Presidency ? Doubtless, not his mere 
ability as a debater, as shown in his memo 
rable contest with Douglas, but, with the 
masses of the people, his character, above 
all things else. He was believed to be not 
only able but trustworthy. "Honest" 
was the magic word by which he distanc- 



ed all competitors and gained the piize. 
At all events it is true that without any 
compromise of principle, without imitating 
the common run of politicians in practic- 
ing mean and unworthy arts for the sake of 
office, his honesty and integrity were at 
last worthily rewarded by his election to 
the highest office in the gift of the people. 
Who then can overestimate the value of the 
lesson thus taught to the aspiring young 
men of the country — the lesson that char- 
acter and success are not inconsistent with 
each other — that moral debasement is not 
nessary to success in life or to the attain 
ment of office and honor ? The nation 
honored rectitude in the person of Abra- 
ham Lincoln ; and thus, having sown the 
seed of righteousness, he received the re- 
ward of righteousness. If he had not bien 
an inflexibly upright man. he doubtlees 
never would have been President of the 
United States. 

2. The value of this noble character is 
seen from the emphasis it gives to the 
truth that faith and godliness are essential 
and indispensable as the qualification for 
duties of the greatest difficulty and respon- 
sibility. Abraham Lincoln did not need 
the art and cunning of an experienced and 
unscrupulous politician, to be fitted for his 
work and to be successful in doing it. He 
had what was infinitely better in his char- 
acter. In his simplicity, guilelessness, hon- 
esty and faith, he was more than a match 
for the sharp politicians of the South and 
their co-adjutors in the North, whoso cor- 
dially hated and despised him, but who 
did not anticipate the utter discomfiture 
and overthrow which they have experienced 
from their conflict with the man, who was 
proved to be the man for his work, and a 
man of power, because he was a God fear- 
ing man. -^The same thing is illustrated in 
all the great leaders of the cause of liberty 
in modern times — in William the Silent, 
in Gustavus Adolphus, in Cromwell, in 
Washington, in Garibaldi, as well as in 
Mr. Lincoln, v In every one of these in- 



stances, the man was a tower of strength, 
because of his strength and gradeur of 
character — because he had the fear of God 
before his eyes. Every one who has read 
the history of the long and terrible strug- 
gle of Holland with Spain and the Inquisi- 
tion, out of which struggle, in defiance of 
imperial despotism, rose the Dutch Re- 
public, has been impressed that the 
strength of that great man William of 
Orange, was in his religious character, his 
sublime confidence in God. So, there nev- 
er was any great pleader in the cause of 
lihery, who was not a man of faith in God, 
and there never will be. The liberty 
which derives its life from the gospel, and 
for which we are so greatly indebted to 
John Calvin, John Knox and the other 
Reformers, never yet achieved a great vic- 
tory but by faith, and it never will. If 
you want to know what Atheism can do 
for liberty, you have only to look at the 
French Revolution, with its rivers of blood, 
its fearful atrocities and its failure. If you 
want a further illustration of what mere 
intellect, unsupported by moral conviction 
and faith in God, can do, you have only to 
contemplate our own rulers at the time of 
the outbreak of the rebellion. Certainly 
they had intellect enough, but alas, they 
were sadly wanting in conscience, in rev- 
erence for right and justice, in faith and a 
sense of responsibility to God; and so a 
man of conscience and character, a man 
having the fear of God before his eyes, 
had to be put at the head of affairs, that 
the nation might be saved. No doubt we 
are greatly indebted to the intellect of Mr. 
Lincoln, to his depth, foresight, shrewdness, 
knowledge of men, common sense; but I 
believe, we are far more indebted to his 
character — his reverence for right, his con- 
fidence in God, his honesty and integrity. 
Without his sincere and habitual reliance 
on God, notwithstanding his intellectual re- 
sources, he must, according to his own 
testimony, have faitered and failed in his 
work. Oppressed every day with anxiety 



6 



and care, feeling his responsibility as the 
leader of and great a imperilled nation, feel- 
ing at times almost overwhelmed in view of 
unexpected reverses, he declared that he 
couid live, but must sink down under his 
burden, utterly crushed, were it not that 
he could go apart by himself and cast his 
burden upon God, and thus find relief in 
prayer. We know that Washington also 
had a similar experience. Think how ut- 
terly insufficient mere human strength is 
for such a trial— utterly unable to pene- 
trate the dark future ; contending against 
a power so formidable ; entrusted with in- 
terest. so great ; and oftentimes confound- 
ed in view of serious difficulties and com- 
plications, and unable to pronounce with 
any certainty as to the right and safe 
course. In such circumstanees, wh?t is 
there to depend upon but God ? And how 
is it possible for a man to exercise forti- 
tude — to be calm, strong, hopeful, coura- 
geous— without faith in God? Without 
the faith that God, with his overwhelming: 
Providence, is evermore on tbe"side of 
right and justice— without the firm belief 
that the cause of humanity, is the cause 
of God— without the confidence that this 
cause shall surely triumph in the end, be- 
cause God is on <** side and purposes that 
it shall triumph— without this confidence 
in God and his revealed purposes, I say, 
how could sny man, amidst all the dark- 
ness, perplexity and uncertainty of the 
past four years, have been at all confident 
of a happy issue of our great and terrible 
war? As a matter of fact, multitudes of 
men felt no such confidence, but from the 
beginning persistently prophesied certain 
failure and declared success impossible. 
And many a time, leaving God out of con 
sideration, in all human view, there seemed 
to be no ground for any such confidence. 
And the men who held fast the beginning 
of their confidence steadfast unto the end, 
and whose courage, never faltered, are 
those who, instead of simply balancing 
the power of the government against the 
power of th° rebellion, rested by faith in 
the pnvrer of God, and clearly discerned 
the Divine purpose in the war. How 
much, then, we owe to the fact that, in the 
time of our great trial, when frequently 
the an^ry storm seemed ready to engulf 
the ship, and many hearts were failing 
them for fear, r, ninn of faith and prayer, a 
man who believed in Clod and therefore in 
the sure ultimate triumph of the nation, 
was at the helm, always calm and hopeful 



and speaking calm and hopeful words for 
the encouragement of the fearful and des- 
pairing. Had that man faltered, had he 
yielded to fear and discouragement, had 
his faith been overcome, where now would 
have been the cause of the nation ? /vHad 
an utterly godless man been President, a 
man with no reverence for right, and no 
confidence in God, and no sense of depend- 
ence on Him, I believe the nation would 
have gone down, and with it the hope of 
humanity. But for the time of our trial 
God gave us a man -whose "grandest prin- 
ciple" was his faith. And in the darkest 
hour, our tower of strength, under God, 
was the sublime character of Abraham 
Lincoln. Believing in God, believing in 
the efficacy of prayer, feeling from the 
first his dependence on God, regarding 
himself as an instrument in the hands of 
God for the doing of a great work, believ- 
ing the affairs of the nation were directed 
by a will above all human counsels, he 
takes his stand by the side of all the great 
leaders in the cause of liberty ; and he 
was strengthened, guided, enlightened, 
kept from discouragement, by "the inspir- 
ation of the Almighty," and thus was 
rendered hopeful, cheerful, unyielding, 
when others were inclined to despondency 
and gloom. Let us acknowledge therefore 
that our great need in our trial was a man 
of faith and godliness at the head of the 
nation, and that the highest qualification 
of Abraham Lincoln for his work was his 
noble character. Let us thank God for 
giving us a true man, a noble example of 
faith, a God fearing man, among our ru- 
lers, and for placing hira in power at the 
time when he was specially needed to show 
that a nation, well nigh ruined by unbelief 
and ungodliness, could be saved by faith. 

I cannot help remarking the great dis- 
tance between this man, and the godless 
and corrupt politicians, who so long afflic- 
ted and disgraced the nation — mere dem- 
agogues, full of dishonesty and falsehood, 
unscrupulous deceivers of the people, and 
thoroughly unworthy of trust. How no 
ble and ialustrious, in the contrast, appears 
the upright, honest man, with his pure 
life, with his spotless reputation, with his 
enlightened conscience, and reverence for 
right, with his faith in God — qualifications 
by which he was fitted for the work that 
renders his name fragrant unto all ages. 

3. The value of this noble character ap- 
nears from the weight it gives to the truth 
that the best man is the most popular man, 



having the strongest hold upon the people 
and the deepest place in their hearts ; or 
that known moral worth in a ruler com- 
mands the love and reverence of the peo- 
ple. This is a lesson of the highest value 
to our politicians and statesmen ; and if 
our lamented President had lived simply 



Hence the entire conn lence which they re- 
posed in him. Hence their bitter sorrow 
in view of his death. Thus it is proved 
that the people are drawn to the earnest, 
sincere man who foars God, and works 
(Jusness, and that they will stand 
by him to the last. Let our rulers lay to 



to illustrate and impress it, he would not heart the lesson, thus strikingly and beau 

tifully illustrated, Let politicians ponder 
the truth that the demand of the people in 
a candidate for oifice, is character. Let 
aspiring men remember that the people 
are not ignorant and 1 brutish, but, to a 
great extent, enlightened, moral, discern- 
ing, and not easily deceived. Let them 
weigh well the truth that Christianity is 
and is to be a power in this nation, and 
that the powerful religious and christian 
sentiment of the country cannot safely be 
treated with contempt, but must be respect- 
ed by those who aspire to be the law-mak- 
ers and rulers of the nation. Let theui 
not fail to consider that a known christ- 
tian character cannot but be respected by 
all, and that it certainly is in the view of a 
majority of the people, a commendation 
for office, rather than otherwise. And let 
them consider that the great demand of 
the. hour is politicians and statesmen pen- 
etrated with reverence for Christianity, and 
unchangably loyal to it Founder, and taking 
as their motto the noble words of Andrew 
Johnson — " Christ first and our country 
next." The solemn, weighty charge of the 
martyred President, to all rulers, statesmen 
and aspiring men is, " Be honest, be faith- 



have lived in vain. Doubtless the desire 
of the nation is an honest man, and this 
desire was fulfilled in Abraham Lincoln 
He believed in the intelligance and hoi 
of the people. He believed that the people 
appreciate uprightness and integrity. He 
believed that practicing the arts of de- 
ception and duplicity for the sake of popu- 
lar favor, is treating the people with con- 
tempt < srving of contempt from 
them. lie entertained t>>> such low views 
of the common intelligence and morality 
as to think such practices expedient and 
justifiable. On the contrary, he trust- 
ed for popular favor to the popular appa- 
ll of honesty and uprightness ; thus 
he honored the people, and the people in 
turn honored him. Never, did a 
ruler repose a more undoubting, affection- 
ate confidence in the people ; and never 
did a people repose a more undoubting, 
affectionate confidence in a ruler. And it 
was proved that the masses of the people 
appreciate manhood in a ruler, and that 
they will stand unflinchingly by a man 
who has been shown to be a man of prin- 
ciple and therefore worthy of trust. Who 
will question that the people's conii 



in Mr. Lincoln as an honest, conscientious ful, be unbendingly upright, be God lear- 
man was the thing that secured his first ing, fight the battle of life on the line of 
election to the presidency ? Or if this be | undeviating rectitude, and honor the peo- 
questionable, who will question that his I pie by taking for granted that thev value 
second triumphant election expressed the character above price." May the charge 



reverence and affection of the people for 
him as a man of incorruptible integrity — a 
man of character, tried and proved ? And 
what do we see in the recent great mourn 
ing of the people but a touching dxhibi- 
tion of the profound love and reverence 
with which t'^ey regard character in a ru- 
ler ? Abraham Lincoln was a man of deep 
moral convictions ; a man who adhered 
inflexibly to the right as God gave him to 
see the right ; a man who was unselfishly 
devoted to his great work, seeking with 



sink down into the hearts of those to whom 
it is addressed. 

4. Finally, this exalted character bears 
with its whole weight to impress the truth 
that men of principle are, before all others, 
ro be regarded as eligible to office. A too 
common sentiment has been, even with 
the intelligent and honest, that we are not 
to regard the moral, but only the intellec- 
tual qualifications of a candidate for office; 
that a man may be unprincipled, intem- 
perate, profane, and utterly godless, and 



all his mind and heart the highest welfare J still possess all the necessary qualifications 
of the nation ; a man who by a long and of a ruler and statesman. And this utter- 
searching trial was proved to possess ex- J ly false sentiment it is that came near work- 
alted meal worth and to be perfectly reli- ing our ruin as a nation. The simple 
able. Hence his strung and deep hold up- truth is that we we were brought to the 
on the love and reverence of the people. | verge of destruction by unprincipled and 



8 



ungodly men of intellect ; and that the 
instrument of our salvation from the threat- 
ened ruin was the honest, worthy man, 
whose noblestquaiification for his work was 
his excellence of character, and the secret 
of whose success was his faith in God. 
Now, if the nation was, on the one hand, 
nearly ruined by intellect, and on the 
other, saved by integrity and virtue, what is 
the inference but that only men of principle 
and character are eligible to high positions ? 
Give us for rulers plain men ot the consci- 
ence, humility, and faith of old John 
Brown, before the crafty, polished smooth 
tongued, unscrupulous demagogues, who 
have no regard for justice or the God of 
justice, and who seek only their own ag- 
grandizement. I hold that every man who 
has no fear of God before his eyes, what- 
ever his ability, is unworthy of entire con- 
fidence and trust. Every such man can 
be bought — only pay him his price. This, 
I think, is proved clear. enough in our his- 
tory. It is designing and unprincipled 
leaders who are chiefly responsible for our 
national troubles. Undoubtedly the great 
mass of the people of the Suuth never 
would have rebelled, had they not been de- 
ceived and led astray by their corrupt pol- 
iticians. Think of the fearful mischief 
wrought by them— 'of the hundreds of 
thousands of well-meaning men deceived 
by them, and immolated to their hellish 
ambition ! Our leaders and statesmen 
could, as I believe, have settled the ques- 
tion of slavery without a war, and settled 
it according to the claims of justice. They 
could have applied the principles of the 
gospel to our politics. They could have 
secured the welfare of the nation in the : 
peaceful abolition of slavery. And had I 
they been men of character, with the fear ! 
of God belore their eyes, they icould have 
worked these beneficent results, and thus 
established a claim to our respect and 
gratitude. But, many of them, instead of 
seeking to weaken slavery, sought only to 
strengthen and perpetuate the system. In- 
stead of being the defenders of human 
liberty, they were the defenders and cham- 
pions of human bondage. And instead of 
securing the peace of the nation, in the 
way of justice, they took the course by 
which, eventually, we were plunged into 
the horrors of a long and terrible civil war; 
thus showing that, with ail their learning 
and ability, they were unfit for their high 
positions, and furnishing a new demonstra- 
tion of the truth that power can not safelvi 



be entrusted to ungodly and unprincipled 
men. Let us thoroughly learn the lesson. 
Let it be impressed on our hearts, by all 
the horrors and miseries of our war, by 
all the blood of patriots shed upon a thous- 
and battle-fields, by all the sorrow of in- 
numerable widows and orphans, and by 
all the worth of righteousness, as illustrat- 
ed in the noble patriot who was raised up 
to be the savior of the nition from the 
ruin brought upon it by able but dishonest 
and untrustworthy men. 

In view of what we have suffered from 
our wicked and stupid idolatry of mere in- 
tellect, let us henceforth have a regard to 
character as an indispensible qualification 
in a ruler, and be governed by the princi- 
ple that " a ruler mtyt be just, ruling in 
the fear of the Lord." 

Such, then, are some. of the lessons of 
the career of the great and good man and 
model statesman, our martyred President ; 
and the theme is far from being exhausted. 
In such language, pleading eloquently for 
truth, manliness, integrity, righteousness, 
faith, <oes be, being dead, yet speak. 
Great, noble, worthy of imitation, was the 
life which illustrates and impresses such 
truths. Thank God for giving the 
nation such a man. Thank God for the 
example of a man who, being righteous, 
held on his way, and, having clean hands, 
grew stronger and stronger, till he was so 
gloriously rewarded — till he achieved a 
victory and performed a work which give 
him rank among the greatest heroes of the 
ages, and the greatest benefactors of the 
race, and which have made his name a 
cherished household word among the poor 
and oppressed in this and other lands. He 
is dead, but his influence for good never 
can die. His life, so manly, worthy and 
beneficent, shall have a voice to the coming 
generations, illustrating the worth and great- 
ness of honesty, integrity, faith and god- 
liness, down to the end of time. And his 
exalted character, which Ins added so 
much to the glory of the nation, which 
shines so brightly to-day and shall continue 
to shine with undiminished lustre forever, 
has now entered as a permanent spiritual 
force into our national life, to work unceas- 
ingly on the side of all that is true, good 
and worthy, and to be reproduced, let us 
hope, in the characters of many, rulers and 
others, walking in the footsteps and imita- 
ting the virtues of the hero and martyr 
because of his righteousness, shall be had 
in everlasting remembrance. 



LB S '12 



